5 Tips for Networking on twitter by Brianna Smith

Brianna Smith just gets it. We were introduced via email a few months ago. After meeting in person, I was super stoked when she agreed to write this piece about personal branding for the Treehouse Blog. Here’s 5 tips for social networking via twitter and IRL from Brianna…

To say that I have a passion for personal branding is an understatement. Building and controlling your personal brand is important for any professional regardless of industry. One of the best tools that you can use to grow your personal brand, as well as your network, is social media.

About three years ago when I made my decision to begin the process of moving back to St. Louis from New Orleans, I learned to use social media to develop my personal brand and grow my network in St. Louis. The great thing about social media is that you don’t have to be in the same physical location to network with others in your field. Like any good professional I optimized my LinkedIn profile for my ideal job, but I found that the best place to network with other social media and marketing professionals was Twitter. One reason I think that it was easier to use Twitter to build my network than LinkedIn is because it was more informal, more like a cocktail party atmosphere than the more formal atmosphere of LinkedIn.

By connecting with other industry professionals in the St. Louis area I was able to learn about and become an active member in different area social media and marketing organizations, participate in area events remotely, and gain insight into the St. Louis marketing community. Most of all, I was able to build important professional relationships with others in my field right through Twitter by sharing topical articles and actively participating in area Twitter Chats each week. By the time I moved back to St. Louis, I had connected and built relationships with at least a dozen area professionals and was able to jump start my career back in my hometown.

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Ready to start using Twitter for networking? Below are my five tips for getting started.

5 Tips for Networking with Twitter

 #1 - Optimize your profile to focus on your specific industry, most importantly your description. Your profile should focus more around your profession instead of just personal tweets.

 #2 - Share industry related articles on a daily basis and use targeted hashtags. For example, I actively shared social media, seo, and digital marketing related articles every day and used industry specific hashtags such as #socialmediastrategy.

 #3 – Follow those in your industry, specifically those in your area. It is a lot easier to connect with others in your industry on Twitter than on LinkedIn where you often need an introduction if they are outside of your current connections.

 #4 – Participate in industry related chats, and look for Twitter chats for professionals in your area. A great place to look for topic related chats is http://tweetreports.com/twitter-chat-schedule/. If there isn’t a Twitter chat already under way for your industry or region, you could also start one yourself and network that way. For tips on how to host, join, and participate in a Twitter chat, I recommend checking out this blog by Buffer, Twitter Chats 101: A Step-by-Step Guide To Hosting or Joining a Twitter Chat.

 #5 – Actively engage with other industry professionals by retweeting articles that they tweet and sharing blogs that they have written that you like

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You can follow Brianna on twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ as well as keep up with her and her own blog